Chiara Dynys was born in Mantua in 1958, lives and works in Milan. She belongs to a generation of artists who reject every concept of style, of figure in order to choose themes and concepts to freely intervene in the language of art. The contact with the observer, which is always found in her creations, is so solicited that it often turns into an emotionally involved actor. “Santo subito!” is the popular invocation that calls for the beatification of someone who is unanimously recognized as worthy of sanctification, without waiting for the long years of official canonization. In this exhibition, expressly designed for Galleria Fumagalli, with the title “Sante subito!” Chiara Dynys pays homage to all the female artists of history, worthy of being sanctified because of their heroic virtues and pains suffered in life and even beyond.

The twelve works which give the exhibition its title, and which take the appearance of a single large installation, almost a sacred representation, are made up of several crowns of thorns, made of ceramic, which lead – at the end of each spine – a letter that forms the name of the artist who is metaphorically forced to wear it. From Artemisia Gentileschi up to Diane Arbus, from Paula Modersohn up to Eva Hesse, through the crowns of thorns the artists of all times are represented. In spite of the subordinate role which they were forced, they continued their work and paid on their skin the marked – or subtle – male ostracism that has dominated the art systems. On the lower level of the gallery, another original series of works takes us through science-fiction landscapes, which are made with the lenticular technique.

Like all science-fiction images and stories, they are fictional images linked to a probability of future, to a possibility of development, to a possible model: the nine images show the world before and after, and an imperceptible movement of the eyes may lead to the initial phase, still uncorrupted. The artist’s collaboration with Galleria Fumagalli began in 1999 with the staging of a solo exhibition in the gallery spaces which also included a performance by dancer Luciana Savignano. His second solo exhibition was set up in 2002, and on that occasion a conference was organized on the artist’s work held by Dieter Ronte, director of the Kunstmuseum Bonn.